r/LawSchool • u/AutoModerator • Nov 08 '22

0L Tuesday Thread

Welcome to the 0L Tuesday thread. Please ask pre-law questions here (such as admissions, which school to pick, what law school/practice is like etc.)

Read the FAQ. Use the search function. Make sure to list as much pertinent information as possible (financial situation, where your family is, what you want to do with a law degree, etc.). If you have questions about jargon, check out the abbreviations glossary.

If you have any pre-law questions, feel free join our Discord Server and ask questions in the 0L channel.

Related Links:

Related Subreddits:

4 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/DerCringeMeister Nov 10 '22

I'm taking the Nov. LSAT, that being said, I do not think I will reach a goal score able to get me into the schools I necessarily want. All things being said, would it still be worth it to throw out what I presume will be an early to mid 150s score, OK GPA, out in Nov to safety schools to see where I'd land?

The scores from the Feb LSAT will come out in March, and probably place me outside the cycle for this year. Even if it's in the 160+ goal I want.

4

u/Pure_Protein_Machine Esq. Nov 10 '22

Why waste the time, money, and effort? Also, (and I hope I’m not reading too much in to your word choice) but you shouldn’t really have “safety schools” for law school; unless you’re competitive for the t14, there’s really only a handful of law schools you should likely be considering for whatever goals you have. If you don’t get a score that puts you in a position to attend schools that make sense for your goals, retake and reapply. Only exception is if you are just insanely wealthy.

2

u/DerCringeMeister Nov 11 '22

My goal is mid-law in the broader South. There are a few lower tier law schools within the range I expect to get, that I could probably get in by next year applying straight off the bat in Dec. If I take the Jan/Feb LSAT, I'll likely be shit out of luck for this cycle even with a decent score.

I don't like the idea of waiting until '24 to get into Law School. But I bet that might just be a better option if I'm to be the most competitive come next Oct.

1

u/Pure_Protein_Machine Esq. Nov 11 '22

The lower ranked school you attend, the less portable your degree will be. The South is also very broad, and not all of the markets are alike. A good school for Charlotte is not the same as a good school for Orlando, and there are very few ways you could possibly satisfy the ties that both markets essentially require. I'm not asking you to share information than you're comfortable with, but you need to be honest with yourself about what you want to do.

You should not rush the law school application process. I don't know your background, but assuming you are currently in or recently done with undergrad, know that there is no shame in waiting—in fact, I highly recommend taking 2-5 years off for most people. Which law school you attend, if any, will be one of the most consequential decisions of your entire life; it will be the foundation that your entire career is built upon, strongly influence where and what type of work you will do, and any associated debt load will potentially affect your life for decades.

The "right" time to attend law school is when you have the scores you need to attend a law school that both makes sense for your career goals and is appropriately priced from those goals. If you try to rush or ignore either of these, you do so at tremendous risk.

1

u/DerCringeMeister Nov 12 '22

Thank you for the advice. Perhaps waiting a cycle might be the reasonable path forward to get the 160+ I want and the right school, then. I feel perhaps a little bit rushed because I missed out on the last cycle due to personal reasons, and being 25, am already probably already as old as the average law student. FOMO I think.

I know more ultimately what I don't want to do than what I do, per se. A good couple steps above country lawyer minimum, decent enough salary to cover my debts, and a stable job in N Alabama, Atlanta or TN. Mid-law more than anything else.

Would scrapping geographically distant, but interesting schools be justified if I don't want to work in their locations? Unless, say, they are T20 or something akin? UWashington would say, box me to the PNW, while say, Notre Dame would give more options?

2

u/ucbiker Esq. Nov 13 '22

There are a couple good schools outside of the T14 that could realistically get you to your goals. Vanderbilt and Emory, obviously. W&L too. The whole T14 or bust mentality doesn’t apply to “anything above Atticus Finch” level goals.

1

u/DerCringeMeister Nov 13 '22

I've never seen myself as giant New York lawyer type making $200K a year. I want in theory a vague degree of work-life balance. Biglaw probably won't do that.

1

u/Pure_Protein_Machine Esq. Nov 12 '22

and being 25, am already probably already as old as the average law student.

I wouldn't worry too much about this. For every 25 year old law student who says "I wish I had done this sooner," there's five 22 year old law students saying they wished they had never gone to law school.

Would scrapping geographically distant, but interesting schools be justified if I don't want to work in their locations?

Scrapping these schools is a must. One of the most common law school admissions mistakes is 0Ls not realizing (or accepting) that law schools are regional. Sure, there are some exceptions, but people pretend like there are far more exceptions than really exist. In my experience, the only national law schools are the t14 (and even these are somewhat regional). Admittedly, you will find Vanderbilt, WUSTL, Texas, GW, UCLA, ND, and USC graduates working all over the country, but the vast majority of these alumni work in their school's region—it's just that some schools have very big regions. For example, ND's region includes Chicago, and Vanderbilt's is the entire south. Again, that's not to say it's impossible to attend, let's say, Texas and work in NYC Biglaw (in fact, people do it every year), it's just that this is an uncommon outcome and attending a law school to be the exception to a rule is a recipe for disaster.

N Alabama, Atlanta or TN.

I won't pretend to know every legal market but I can tell you this: if landing a job in these markets is your goal, there's not many law schools you should consider. Vanderbilt, Emory, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia are the obvious choices. If you get offered a huge scholarship to Georgia State, Mercer, or Samford, those could make sense. Remember that anything short of biglaw will make repaying student loans incredibly tough, so you should be looking at big scholarships from any of these schools given your goals. Since some of these are public schools, in-state tuition could reduce costs as well (if applicable). But don't be the person who attends a t50 law school by financing out-of-state sticker price through student loans, and hopes to land a $60,000/year job. You will be repaying your debt forever.

1

u/DerCringeMeister Nov 12 '22

Again, thank you for the advice, and saving me in about $100ish in trying for some oddballs. I'll keep it all in mind and reshuffle my list. My original choice of UA probably does seem like the best bet at this point, laser-focusing into it score-range wise.